There’s nothing like a bargain airfare offer to attract the attention of consumers‚ and as bargains go‚ they don’t come better than Safair’s R1 tickets — including taxes.

Unsurprisingly‚ SA’s newest airline’s website crashed on Tuesday and in the midst of the booking frenzy‚ Mango issued a “nose-out-of-joint” statement‚ saying words to the effect that they’d done it all before and Safair was just a copycat.

By the way‚ the R1 offer has been extended to noon on Wednesday.

Meanwhile‚ another newcomer — Fly Blue Crane — prepares to launch on September 1.

While wishing the new airlines everything of the best‚ of course‚ having dealt with hundreds of passengers who were left with worthless bookings after the collapse of Nationwide in 2008‚ and both Velvet Sky and 1Time in 2012‚ I’d be remiss in not repeating a key piece of advice for would-be budget flyers.

Pay by credit card.

That’s because if you do so‚ and you don’t get what you paid for‚ you can get your money back via chargeback‚ a consumer protection offered internationally by the credit card companies.

A chargeback is essentially a reversal of a transaction because the goods or services that were purchased were not provided by the merchant — either not at all or not in full.

And it applies to all credit card purchases‚ not just airline tickets‚ of course.

Your bank gets the money back from the merchant’s bank‚ provided you apply within the deadlines laid down by the bank which issued your credit card — anything from three to six months — and provide solid evidence that you were done down.

Of course‚ you’ll probably still be hugely out of pocket because replacement air tickets will cost a lot more‚ but it’s better than no refund at all.

Those who paid cash or did an EFT for their unused tickets on the collapsed airlines — some just hours before the liquidation was announced — had no such luck.

A word of caution — Diner’s Card is not a credit card but a charge card‚ so you can’t claim chargeback for goods or a service paid for with a Diner’s Card.

For the rest‚ the key to a successful chargeback‚ air ticket related or not‚ is having the hard evidence to back up your claim. Receipts‚ correspondence between yourself and the supplier‚ photographs — even a recording done with your cellphone: it all helps make your case.

Chargeback makes that annual credit card fee a little more bearable.

- Wendy Knowler is a consumer columnist at Times Media Group. Contact her on e-mail: consumer@knowler.co.za or Twitter @ wendyknowler